


older by the day

by dizzy



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22594786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: Richie takes night time to think things over.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 8
Kudos: 70
Collections: Obsessivelymoody Birthday fics 2020





	older by the day

Sometimes Richie drinks a lot of his dad's beers and then sneaks out of the house. He'll ride his bike, mostly abandoned in favor of the junk heap of a car he has, all the way out to the quarry 

On a cold night with the moon bright above him and the breeze stiff, he feels like flying. He doesn't know what he loves about it so much. He doesn't have a kink for numb toes, or anything. But he likes to ride so fast his calves ache and then get to the quarry and look out at the dark water rippling. He likes to stare at it and remember what childhood felt like, though as a kid he never saw the quarry like this. 

Maybe what he likes about it is how in-between it feels. It's not the past and it's not his future but every breath that makes his lungs burn reminds him that this is his right now. 

*

Eddie's grown up cute. 

Richie always knew he would. but at just shy of eighteen he's taller and he's filled out in a way that's nice - lean and compact as opposed to the gangliness that Richie hasn't growth spurted his way out of yet. His feet still feel too big for his body and his voice still breaks sometimes and he thinks it's really fucking not fair that Eddie Spaghetti is a Cute Patooti and Richie looks like no one's ever told him how to brush his hair in his whole life. 

Which... have they, really? He'll have to ask his mom about that. Maybe she did when he was little but then gave up trying to tame her feral offspring. 

Not feral. His mom has a new word for it now, something she read in a magazine at the doctor's office. She thinks he has Attention Deficit Disorder. His algebra teacher at school thinks ADD is a bunch of bunk the government made up to feed our kids pills. Richie doesn't really know which one's right, but he's not taking any pills anyway. His mom said he probably could have used them when he was still little. 

He's taller than his dad now, almost, so he left little behind a long time ago. 

"Hey, assface." 

A grape pelts against Richie's cheek. It doesn't take Jerry Orbach to figure out the grape that he was assaulted with matches the grapes in Eddie's plastic lunch container.

"What!" Richie says. 

"I was talking to you." Eddie picks up another grape, but instead of using this one as a projectile he just eats it. 

"I was listening." 

"You fucking were not," Eddie says. "What was I talking about?" 

"How dashing and handsome I am," Richie says, then strikes a pose with his hands framing his face. 

Eddie rolls his eyes. "No, I was talking about how mom's going to visit her aunt next Saturday. So do you want to come over or not?" 

If Richie were a dog, his ears would perk right up. Instead he's an eighteen year old boy, so something else perks up instead. 

*

So sex is a thing they do. Like, kinda. Richie isn't sure what qualifies as sex if you're two boys. They haven't done the whole... hide the salami thing yet. But turns out there are a whole lot of other ways to get your rocks off, and Richie and Eddie... they've become pretty good at figuring them out. 

They talked about it a little, right at the start. When that girl asked Eddie to be her boyfriend the first semester of ninth grade and Richie almost burst into tears. Again a few months later when Richie almost kissed someone at spin the bottle and Eddie didn't talk to him for a week. 

Sometimes the words they said weren't the right ones, but they got there in the end. And now they're a little older and they do things like kiss and talk shit about each other while they kiss and take their shirts off and kiss some more and talk some more shit. 

It's the happiest Richie is in his life, stealing moments with Eddie. 

He hopes it never ends. 

*

Richie goes to the quarry the night before Eddie's mom goes out of town. 

It's one of those nights where he feels like he's got a lot to think about. He's always figured college was just a bunch of hooey and he wanted to head right for Los Angeles when he graduated. 

But Eddie's going to college. He's talking about Boston or Chicago maybe, or somewhere in New York. 

He's filling out applications. He's got applications for Richie to fill out. 

It's the first time Richie realized that while he's been so set on living in the now, Eddie's living in the future and imagining both of them there. 

It's wild. It's terrifying. It feels like something Richie shouldn't be allowed to have. 

He picks up a rock and launches it out over the water. In the utter stillness of the night, he hears the splash. When he closes his eyes he sees them all right down to their tightie whities launching their bodies off this ledge like they didn't know how much potential it had to hurt if they landed wrong. 

If Richie really doesn't want to go to college, he can sit there tomorrow and watch Eddie fill them out. He can tell Eddie know and watch Eddie's face get all hurt and sad. Maybe he'll even go home early, and not the kind of 'go home' like he does when Mrs. K. is actually there, where he just goes to the Red Apple and buys some snacks and then sneaks back in through Eddie's window. He could go home and not go back. He could let Eddie walk away while he walks in a different direction. 

He feels like dumping his lunch back into the quarry just thinking about it. 

College, he decides then and there, won't be so bad. 

*

He stays at the quarry almost until the sun comes up, then sleeps through his first three classes. Not at home - right there on his desk. Mrs. Sandberger tries to wake him up but no one else even bothers. They're seniors in their last semester. That's just how life goes, man. 

Eddie's not at lunch. He's got a makeup test for that week his mom pulled him out of school when she was convinced he'd get ebola. 

Richie sleeps through lunch, too. He stays awake for fifth period, probably because that's gym and he hasn't mastered running while sleeping. But all it really means is that he's double tired and also sore from an extra bike ride over by the time he climbs in Eddie's window.

His car would also be more convenient, but that's a little harder to hide behind a bush a street over. 

"You're such a lazy ass," Eddie says, shutting the window and pulling the curtains closed. Eddie's always worried about nosy neighbors. 

Richie says they should leave them open and just charge tickets. "My ass is many things, but lazy... is also one of them, correct, Professor K." 

He sprawls out face down on Eddie's bed. There's a 50/50 shot Eddie will either join him or order him to get up. 

The bedsprings squeak with Eddie's weight. Richie lets the warmth blanket him as he feels Eddie's hand push up under the back of his shirt, and Eddie's forehead rest against the side of Richie's head. "Hi." 

That shy, quiet one-syllable greeting is Eddie-speak for _I want you to kiss me I am just physically incapable of asking nicely, this is literally the most I can get out._

Richie turns his head and finds Eddie's mouth right there and waiting. He rolls onto his side and pulls Eddie close and they're good at this by now. Their legs know where to go and so do their hands and their lips - they're just good, okay? They've practiced and they're masters now. 

Then Richie pulls away. "Eddie, can we fill out those applications?" 

He's breathing like he's just run a marathon and it's more than a little tonsil hockey. He's breathing hard because he's racing against his own apathy and Eddie at the finish line might be the best motivation ever but he still feels like he needs to do this before he gets a stitch in his side and blinks and Eddie's nowhere to be seen. 

"That was the plan, numbnuts," Eddie says. "And don't call me Eddie, that's weird. We're starting with Boston." 

Richie kisses him one more time before Eddie gets off the bed, then puts on the best/worst Boston accent he can think of. "Are they gonna ask us how to park the car?" 

"You know what," Eddie says. "Never mind, college is overrated." 

Richie laughs and sits up, scooting back against Eddie's headboard. Eddie shoots him a grin and Richie's suddenly struck with the idea that he's gonna get to keep that grin with him forever. 

It's worth a little lost sleep sometimes.

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday moody!! 
> 
> and thank you sarah for beta reading <3


End file.
